Corruption
by Catfisha
Summary: Orochimaru intends to claim what is rightfully his, and craft Anko into the woman she was truly meant to be under his wing. Will he be able to corrupt his little Anko? Will she be seduced by the power she truly possesses? After being forcefully kidnapped, Anko Mitarashi has been involuntarily living under Orochimaru for a month now. Will his influence envelop her?
1. The Caged Bird

It was dark.

It was always so poorly lit around this god damned place. Only the faint, orange glow of a nearby dancing flame on a wax stage lit Anko Mitarashi's pale face. She sat perched on her soft, twin-sized bed, her legs drawn to her chest. She had her arms tightly wrapped around them, her brown, pupil-less eyes glaring with seething intensity into the stone floor.

She shouldn't even be calling this bed _her _bed. It wasn't hers. It was _a_ bed. This wasn't her home. It never would be.

She sat in the labyrinthian depths of her former sensei, Orochimaru's, lair. Or at least, _one of_ his lairs. This had been the third time they'd moved locations this month. It was getting to be exhausting.

Luckily, she'd only _been_ with these heinous, filthy people for that month. She'd tried to escape this place at least ten times now, all of which tragically failed. Orochimaru knew her well enough to know that she'd try to escape him at every turn.

She felt like a fool for allowing herself to get caught. She allowed herself to get trapped in this... _hell. _More than anything, she was feeling overwhelmingly homesick. No matter what that damned snake told her, her true home was in Konoha. _Not_ under _his _pretentious wing.

She couldn't help but, for the millionth time now, reflect on how she ended up here.

It was his manipulation. She'd fallen prey to it, in likely the worst way possible. For months, he antagonized her. Lured her to him. It started with those damned Chunnin exams. After that, he... Was always _there._

He'd invaded Anko's every dream, corrupting it into a nightmare. She thought those nightmares had ceased years ago, but... Seeing him had changed that.

After the Chunnin exams, he continued to almost ritually visit Anko in the most obscure of ways, almost always hidden amongst the stealth of shadow.

He'd said to her, his voice slithering it's way into every fiber of her being,

"_My dear... You must realize, you've been played for a fool your entire life here in this pathetic village. You are rightfully mine. That mark on your neck further validates the truth of my words... You know it."_

He would also almost always say,

"_I made you. Tell me, my dear... If you raised a bird from the moment it hatches from it's egg, would you not feel robbed if another mother bird adopted that child from you, and raised it as it's own? You were mine to begin with. Your place is with me."_

And then...

"_That pathetic village shriveled all potential that you had. They ruined you. Imagine what, and who you could have become if you'd remained with me..."_

Anko could feel goosebumps rise all over her feminine body as his words echoed through her mind. Her heart believed them, but her mind fought against them furiously. However, she wasn't here voluntarily.

She'd been kidnapped.

Kabuto Yakushi had managed to kidnap her from her own apartment, in the dead of night, just about a month ago. He'd forcefully made her unconscious before whisking her away to... This place.

Now, here she'd remained. For a month. A month of complete and utter hell.

She felt like she'd been in jail. She felt _wrong_ here, but... There was a subtle portion of her that believed Orochimaru's words. She felt like a fool for even _vaguely _seeing any amount of truth in _his _words.

She still had absolutely no idea why they decided to kidnap her, or why they were even showing any amount of interest in her. They couldn't give a shit less before, so why now all of a sudden? It wreaked of suspicious behavior. Anko was suspecting that soon, she would be at risk of being another one of Orochimaru's little "experiments." If she knew him well, her guess had to be right.

At the other end of the same hall that had been residing in, the two men of power in this business conversed with eachother. They needed to plan. Kabuto Yakushi, a pale, gray-haired young man stood in front of his lord, Orochimaru. He pushed his circular glasses up the bridge of his nose, his arms folded over his chest as he spoke with his lord.

"And you're sure that this will be worth all of the trouble? She's the focal point of this lair's attention. She has been for a month. We can't waste our time babysitting her forever, my lord."

In front of Kabuto sat a half-shrouded, seated figure. His voice could freeze just about anything.

"I don't like repeating myself, Kabuto. You know of my plans for _my_ Anko. She may be a burden to us now, but in due time... She will not pose a threat to us. She's already vulnerable enough to my influence." He let out a dark chuckle, ebony hair shifting against the movement of his broad shoulders. "Once she tastes the power that she truly possesses, that that wretched village robbed her of, she'll have a reason to stay where she rightfully belongs."

Kabuto hadn't heard this part of the plan yet. His eyes slightly widened, "My lord, are you saying that you intend to reactivate 's Cursed Seal?"

"That's precisely what I'm saying. Those vermin sealed it, and robbed her of her own gift. I intend to show her exactly what she's capable of. Morality won't interfere, and I'll make her realize how much of a lie "morality" truly is." He spoke with passion, his voice hissing through the air. He rose from his seat, amber, serpentine eyes stabbing into Kabuto's.

"Once we form our little Anko into the Shinobi that she was meant to be... She'll be the greatest asset to our cause. You know it, I know it. Now, leave me... Check on our darling little Anko." He said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Kabuto nodded, and exited the room. He traveled down the hallway, and stopped in front of Anko's door. He knocked lightly on the wooden surface, " ?"

"_What?_" Came a snide, excessively aggressive voice from the other side.

"Lord Orochimaru sent me to check on you. Do you need anything?"

"_Screw you. _Get the hell away from me." She growled, her bitter voice muffled through the door. Kabuto wasn't too phased by it, as usual.

"As you wish, . Don't hesitate to summon me if you need anything." As usual, he exuded politeness. Lord Orochimaru certainly wouldn't be pleased if he'd treated his Anko any differently.

"I'll only summon you to slit your damned throat, lap dog." She continued, to which Kabuto took his leave. Within the room, remnants of tear trails could be seen down Anko's cheeks. She'd been reflecting on everything.

How she got here, Konoha... Everything.

But mostly how she'd gotten here, and how much of an idiot she was for allowing herself to get kidnapped by that wretch. She was sure that the ninja of Konoha had been tearing this damned forest apart looking for her...

But with the way that they kept moving from hideout to hideout, they would never find her.

They were obviously moving around like this on purpose, to keep her away from them.

Tomorrow, she needed to escape this place. It needed to be a serious, well thought out attempt. She knew how they were now. She needed to counter their knowledge of her behavior somehow. No matter what it took, she would do it. She couldn't stand to be in this place for another day.

_Not one more day._

She may have begun with Orochimaru, but that was it. She only _began _with him. Where was he for the rest of her life? She was aware that _she'd_ left _him_, but... All the same, he made no attempt to persuade her otherwise. He cared nothing for her, and he had the nerve to sit here and claim her as his property?

No. She was a Leaf Shinobi, not a Sound pawn.

Tomorrow was the day.

She could feel it.

The day that she'd finally be free from this filthy cage of corruption.


	2. The Seeds of Corruptiom

Within The Land of Fire, in the depths of The Village Hidden in the Leaves, Tsunade had been up to her neck in business. Shizune, her coal-haired assistant, had a hand placed on the powerful woman's shoulders.

"Lady Tsunade... We're doing everything that we can. We've sent ANBU, sent our best Shinobi... What more can we do?" Her tone held a slight worry to it. Since Anko Mitarashi's kidnapping about a month ago, Tsunade had been relentlessly searching for her. The other Shinobi of the village had obviously also been excessively worried, namely Kurenai. The atmosphere in Tsunade's office had grown slightly tense. She had her head resting on her pale hands, her eyebrows pulled together as her hazel eyes glared forwards.

"I refuse to let him take her, Shizune. Anko is one of our best Shinobi. I know why he wants her. He's not as unpredictable as he thinks." The Hokage's voice was firm, and serious. This was a serious matter that needed to be resolved. Shizune urged on,

"I understand that, my lady. We all do. But... It's been a little over a month now, and we've made no progress. We have more taxing matters to tend to. I sugge-" Shizune tried to speak as calmly and genuinely as she could. She knew Tsunade had been under a lot of stress. However, she'd been cut off by the blonde woman in front of her.

"Are you suggesting that I simply _abandon_ one of my own people, Shizune? Are you implying that Anko's well being simply isn't important enough to be focused on? Regardless of what "bigger" issues we may have to deal with, my focus on retrieving will not diminish. She needs to come home, Shizune."

Cautiously, Shizune persisted. She knew she was walking into a pool of lava with this. "My lady... Anko is a highly skilled Jonin. I'm certain that if she wanted to escape from Orochimaru's clutches, that she would've managed to by now. Are you certain that she isn't willingly staying with him? There has to be a reason why even our ANBU can't track them down. Not a single trace of them."

Once that idea had been presented to Tsunade, her eyes widened slightly. That idea seemed very... Plausible. Very likely. Especially with how things have been playing out... She..." Tsunade could feel slight disgust whirl within her. "Anko is very... Vulnerable... To Orochimaru's manipulation. She has a past with him. If anyone is getting seduced by him in this village, it would be Anko Mitarashi. Perhaps he managed to crawl in her head and... Corrupt her." Tsunade's hand clenched into a tight fist, her jaw tightening. "That bastard!"

Shizune held her hands out reassuringly. "Now, lady Tsunade, that's only an idea. I mean, she _was _kidnapped, after all. I'm pretty sure you can't kidnap the willing."

A drawn out silence filled the room. One that could cut glass. Then, the Hokage replied,

"There's a first time for everything."

~/~

Anko ended up silently, and shamefully, crying herself to sleep that night. It'd been the first time she'd ever completely broken down, and she felt utterly pathetic and defeated for it. She felt like that frail little girl again. That little girl that so blindly followed her sensei until the end. That night, she didn't dream. Not even a nightmare. Her mind was too numb to dream. She hadn't even bothered to pull the blanket over her, or even lie down for that matter.

She hadn't laid down on this bed once since she'd been here.

Laying down would signify getting comfortable here. It would be one more step towards him winning. She'd hardly even eaten during her time here, either. She'd been constantly paranoid that her food was poisoned with some insidious substance. Perhaps something to mind control her.

Just like usual, Anko had slept sitting up with her back to the wall. She woke up to, as usual, darkness. Not the blinding morning sun that she'd been so used to in Konoha. She missed it dearly. There wasn't a single window in this entire hideout. Not one. But today, she'd be leaving this place. She couldn't handle being here anymore.

The bags under her eyes were exceedingly prominent. It was clear that she hadn't been sleeping very much, if at all, in this past month. She felt too paranoid to sleep. She felt the need to always be awake and on guard, in case anyone slipped into her room and did anything to her. She only slept when she literally passed out from exhaustion.

Kabuto knocked on Anko's door, " , I have your breakfast."

"We've been over this at least a hundred times, Kabuto, I don't want your fucking poison." She hissed from the other side of the door, her voice growing noticeably dryer since her arrival here. Kabuto let out a soft chuckle, "You're going to die of starvation if you keep this stubborn behavior up. Lord Orochimaru wouldn't be very pleased with that... Now would he?"

Anko gripped the bed sheets with what little strength her starved, sleep-deprived body could muster. "Do you think I give a damn about what that _thing_ wants? Honestly? I'm not being stubborn, Kabuto. I'm just not being a damned idiot and accepting everything you people give me. There's a difference."

There was a silence. Kabuto internally praised her caution. Perhaps what Lord Orochimaru saw in her was legitimate after all... This woman was no fool.

"And if you die because of this behavior?"

"I'd rather starve to death than live here."

And with that, Kabuto had nothing further to say. He stepped away with Anko's plate in hand, bringing it back to the kitchen. On his way back, a familiar ivory face stopped him. "Kabuto. We're going to be leaving today to run some... Errands. I've arranged for some men to guard Anko's room while we're out."

"And what errands would those be, my lord?"

"We're going to track the movements of the ANBU pursuing us to achieve an edge. I'd prefer to be one step ahead of them."

Kabuto nodded, "Right, my lord. I'll meet you at the front gates."

The duo in crime had left their cave, momentarily. Anko had no knowledge of this. Outside of her bedroom door, two highly skilled Sound Shinobi stood guard. They wouldn't be budging any time soon. However, all Anko could think about was escaping this god damned place. She'd already planned it all out, thoroughly, through her tears the night previously. She'd need to perfect a jutsu that would cloak her entirely. She knew that Orochimaru had developed a jutsu of the sort... She'd just need to find away to obtain the scroll of it. It would be wise to wait until night had fallen to act this all out.

For once, however, Anko felt like leaving her bedroom. Kabuto, in an attempt to gain her trust, had told her that she was free to roam the lair if she felt any desire to. So, she would take that opportunity. She walked up to her bedroom door and creaked it open.

To her surprise, two unfamiliar faces stood on either side of her door frame. Had they always been there like that? The two men looked at her simultaneously. One of them said, "We've been ordered to not allow you out of your room, Ms. Mitarashi. We're going to need you to step back inside." Anko narrowed her eyes. "Kabuto gave me permission to roam these damned halls. Why the sudden change in policy, huh? Besides, I'm starving. Literally. I need something to eat."

She thought that excuse would be valid enough. But, then man didn't take it. He replied, "I'll go and fetch some food for you while my friend here keeps an eye on you." Anko grinned. Perfect. Once the man turned his back on her, she jumped at the opportunity.

She wasn't stupid. She'd already figured it out. These men were here because Kabuto and Orochimaru weren't. Now was as good a time as ever to try and escape. Likely her best opportunity. The moment he'd turned his back, Anko's body was gone. She'd lunged herself at the male, latched herself to his back. She'd coiled her legs firmly around his waist from behind, constricting him. She snagged a kunai that she'd been hiding preciously from her sleeve, then, before the man could even react, viciously slashed his throat open with the kunai.

The man gargled and gagged, drowning in his own blood. He fell to his knees, pawing at his gushing throat. Before Anko could react, the second man had come from behind her. He grabbed her from behind and constrained her, every muscle in her body screaming with pain in response. She grunted with pain, taking in a sharp breath. But, she pressed on. He'd had her hands spread apart so she couldn't perform any jutsus on him. But, she'd been one step ahead of him.

Anko's body had dissolved into mud underneath the man's iron grasp. He cursed under his breath, but was far too late to save his own life. From behind, Anko repeated her actions on the man. She slashed his throat open, taking great satisfaction in slicing open his jugulars. Blood sprayed and poured, splattering all over the walls. Once his body too fell, pools of crimson from both bodies pooled around them. Anko looked down at the two of them with a satisfied grin,

"Clearly, those bastards underestimated me. They sent some weak chumps to keep me down."

The sight of that crimson... That blood that she loved so much. It motivated her. It sparked something in her. Anko stepped forward towards the closest body. She knelt down at it's side, "I need to make sure that you two won't re-animate in some fashion... I can't take any chances." She had to justify her own actions before doing them.

She proceeded to stab the kunai into the flesh of the deceased man in front of her. She could feel the blade grinding against the back of his rib cage. She felt goosebumps rise on her skin, and adrenaline begin to pump through her.

She stabbed him again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Soon enough, her arm was a relentless instrument of destruction as it recklessly, and rhythmically, plummeted into dead flesh. His body had been decorated with her love.

Her marks. Her rage. Her revenge.

After about five consistent minutes of her mutilating this man's body in a fit of... Hell, she didn't even know... She rose. Blood drenched her forearms, and the front of both of her legs. It felt nice to have blood bathing her flesh again.

She'd acquired this blood lust from her former sensei.

This was his influence.

Without his influence, would she have done what she just did?

God, there was no denying it. She enjoyed that. She enjoyed feeling her kunai slice through every tendon, every bit of flesh...

She was never this sadistic. Being in here for a month must have brought this out in her. She felt... Better. Relieved.

She began walking away from the scene, down the obscure hallway, but her mind was racing. _Did Orochimaru truly have that much of an influence on her?_

Her mind began to flash with images of the two of them in their old days. Where did that all go?

Oh, that's right, she robbed herself of it. She chose to not stay with him. She chose her own path. But why? _Why did she choose that?_

Would she have been happier here with him, if she'd chosen to stay with him that day? How different would her life be if she'd never left his side?

She couldn't help but wonder.

Her hand reached up to touch the Curse Seal on her neck, her jaw tightening.

And that... What could it do for her? What potential did it honestly have for her?

What kind of power could it provide for her?

Had she been... Wasting a gift?

"_Oh my god."_ She thought to herself, physically hitting her own head. "_Why are you thinking like that, Anko? Get a damned grip! You chose your own path because you were smart enough to know how much of a manipulative, fake bastard he was! And this damned mark is sealed for a reason, and you know it. It's called a "__**Curse**__ Seal"_ _for a reason, dumby. Now __**get the hell out of here already! Move!**__"_ She'd been internally yelling at herself. She was... Letting Orochimaru's words influence her. The fact that she'd just had those chain of thoughts meant that she _needed _to get the fuck out of here. This place was messing with her head.

Or was _Orochimaru _messing with her head?

She dashed forwards, not entirely knowing where she was going in this damned place. All she knew was that she needed to find those front gates.

Lucky for her, the halls had been relatively empty. The few people that were present had been easy to sneak past. She decided to follow a specific ninja who had claimed to be heading for the front gates to run some errands. She'd gathered that intel from eavesdropping.

About an hour had passed. This place truly was massive. The ninja had, thankfully, led her to the front gates. She waited a few moments for the ninja to walk away far enough before she made her rather risky escape through the front gates. She'd be very exposed. She'd just need to hope that the coast was clear.

She took a chance, and ran for it.

She opened the gates quietly enough, and was greeted by the abundantly missed warm rays of summer sun. She smiled to herself, soaking it all in for a few seconds. It felt like so long since she'd felt the warmth of the sun kiss her pale skin.

She had to close her eyes. The light was unbearably bright to her now unaccustomed eyes. It seemed like the coast was clear.

This seemed... Too good to be true. Way too good. This had to be a trap.

Regardless, she made a mad dash to the nearest entrance into the forest. Foliage was what she needed right now. She had no idea where Orochimaru and Kabuto were, but she could only assume that it was most definitely nowhere near here. Her body pumped and running on nothing but adrenaline, she rushed through the forest with little to no sense of direction. Direction didn't matter right now. All that mattered was _getting the hell away from that place._

Her weak, starved body heaved for air. She'd been running as fast as she could for what seemed like an eternity. She had no idea where she was. All she could think about doing was running, getting away from there. Figuring out where she was came after successfully escaping.

In reality, she'd been running like this for about ten minutes. She'd managed to make it out a good couple of miles away from the hideout. She had to stop. Her body was too weak for this. She rested against a tree trunk, hunched over. Suddenly, she felt overwhelmingly ill.

She vomited nothing but stomach bile on to the forest floor in front of her. She heaved, her body trembling, her legs threatening to give out.

She should have rested better before doing this.

Her body wasn't going to let her do this.

Stubbornly, Anko wiped her mouth clean and slowly kept moving forwards, now being reduced to a shuffled walk.

Her vision was beginning to blur. Her hearing was beginning to grow muffled. Everything on her body began to tingle and grow numb. And then, the black void graced her with it's horrible presence.

She'd collapsed to the forest floor, unconscious from sheer exhaustion. She'd eaten maybe five or seven times within this month in total, and had slept _maybe_ two to three hours a night. By now, she probably should have been dead. Her body couldn't handle what she'd been trying to do.

She was dying.

She was slowly killing herself.

~/~

It was warm.

Not as warm as that amazing sunlight, but... Comfortably warm.

Underneath her, she felt the softness of cloth. She didn't feel any sort of restraints on her joints. Her head shifted, a low groan coming from her throat. She could see a heavily blurred, silhouetted figure rising from a sitting position in front of her, and approaching her. The silhouette knelt down in front of her.

She felt the cold touch of someone on her cheek. The cold touch rubbed her cheek almost affectionately. Everything was such a haze... But the one thing that was crystal clear to her was this silhouette's voice.

"My little Anko... You've always been quite the stubborn one. Tell me, why have you been starving yourself, my dear?"

Her vision began to clear.

Ivory skin, inhumanly snow white.

Highly contrasting ebony hair.

Amber, serpentine eyes.

_Orochimaru._

Anko gasped and shot up, slapping his hand away. The room that she'd been sat in didn't look familiar to her. This wasn't her room. Was it his?

She'd collapsed back on to the bed as a direct consequence of her abrupt, harsh movements to her dying body.

"_Damn it." _She hissed, shoving her face into the cover in defeat. _God damn it. She'd failed._ Now, it would be even harder to escape this place. Orochimaru chuckled, "Tell me, Anko, why is it that you're doing this to yourself? Why is it that you're so drastically opposed to living under me? Ask yourself... _What makes you feel such hatred for this place_?" Before delivering his next line, he left a pause for his words to sink in.

"Is it, perhaps, the invasive influence of Konoha that made you believe that I am the embodiment of "wrong?" You claim that I influence you... But, my dear, I was simply there first. That pathetic village that you call home is the real evil. The _real_ manipulator. _They _shaped your mindset towards me. Towards this place.

Tell me... Am I evil, or are they?"

Anko curled up into a ball, her back to her former sensei.

"Shut the hell up. You have no idea what you're talking about." Her voice was harsh, venomous. "It won't work on me, Orochimaru. I'm smarter than that. I always have been. I can see through your petty mind games. _They_ didn't shape my mindset towards you, _you did._"

Orochimaru rose, a chuckle sounding from him. "Well, I suppose there's no getting through to you, then. If you refuse to see the truth, then... I suppose you're just as worthless as I originally thought you were. Perhaps giving you a second chance indeed _was_ a waste of my time after all. Besides... I certainly don't _need_ you to further my own power. I have Sasuke Uchiha for that."

Anko felt an overwhelmingly sharp sting stab straight through her heart.

Damn it, he knew how to get to her.

He knew every button to press.

He was playing with her abandonment insecurities.

As Orochimaru was just about to exit the room, Anko quickly shifted on his bed.

"_Wait!_"

She sat there, on his bed, looking at him. A hand lazily outstretched.

Orochimaru stopped at the doorway, eyeing her.

"Don't go. Please, don't go. Just..."

She trailed off, feeling disgusted with herself. She had no idea where any of that came from. She felt like the child inside of her had said that, not her.

Orochimaru triumphantly grinned. He knew that would work. He stepped back into the room, walked back over to her, and placed his hand beneath her chin, lifting her face up to meet his. His amber eyes dug into hers, relentlessly overwhelming.

"You just...? Finish."

Anko's eyes narrowed into his, his voice filling every portion of her body. His presence was an overwhelming one. It took a certain talent to get accustomed and unphased by it.

She tried to finish, but was finding it difficult to find the words.

"I just... Don't know where my morals truly lie anymore."

He'd won.


End file.
